For Tracy Horgan (Sudbury) and Krista McCarville (Thunder Bay), the easy part is now behind them.
The northern Ontario curling rivals both safely navigated their way through regional playdowns, earning a berth at provincials in Kenora next month.
With four of the seven teams in the field moving in, this hardly represented a major shock. Still, McCarville, a former Ontario representative at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts, needed a tie-breaker to secure the northern Ontario crown.
Both McCarville and Marlo Dahl of Port Arthur finished round robin play with records of 5-1, with McCarville earning the regional title thanks to a 11-5 victory in the head-to-head match-up.
Horgan, who is teamed with her sister, Jennifer Seabrook, as well as Jenna Enge and Amanda Gates, finished the weekend with a record of 4-2, nabbing the third qualifying slot and heading to provincials for the fifth consecutive year since making the jump from the junior ranks.
Horgan bounced Louise Logan and Sandra Lahti, both of Copper Cliff, on Friday before dropping a 6-3 decision to Dahl. After a Saturday morning bye, the Idylwylde quartet walloped Laura Pickering of North Bay (11-2) and slipped past Ashley Kallos (Port Arthur) 7-6, providing a cushion heading into the Sunday morning finale pitting two of the best teams in the province.
McCarville grabbed an early lead, trading single points for much of the remainder of the contest in knocking off Horgan 9-7.
Meanwhile, Pickering closed with a pair of wins over Lahti and Logan, enough to slide into the fourth and final qualifying slot with a record of 3-3.
Logan, who was joined by Margaret McLaughlin, Amanda Corkal and Monique Schryer, finished one game back at 2-4, while Lahti, alongside Amanda Mahaffy, Jamie Ward, Renee Higgins and Roxanne Barbeau, failed to hit the win column.
McCarville and Horgan, who met in the semifinal at the Ontario Scotties last year in Thornhill, will join both Dahl and Pickering in Kenora from Jan. 23 to 29, looking to earn a trip to Red Deer, Alberta in February for the Canadian Championships.
Rachel Homan of Ottawa captured the Ontario berth last year. The 2012 Ladies World Curling Championships is slated for Lethbridge, Alberta in mid-March.
Posted by Laurel Myers
